Deep within the Shushan Sword Sect's mountain headquarters, at the center of the Gouwu Sea Moon Sea Region, lay a place for receiving guests called Swordheart Terrace.
This was no ordinary pavilion or hall, but a natural platform hewn by sheer force into a towering cliff a thousand fathoms high.
Most of the platform's floor consisted of meticulously polished first- and second-tier mysterious azure sword marrow stone.
The stone looked smooth and mellow, but concealed a keen edge within.
Anyone stepping onto it barefoot would clearly feel strands of Sword Qi traveling from the meridians in their soles throughout their body.
The platform's edges bore no traces of ornamentation; only a hundred and twenty-eight Spirit-Locking Sword Pillars encircled it.
The pillars were densely engraved with the Shushan Sword Sect's secret Mind-Calming Sword Runes.
These sword runes served a considerable purpose: they could both block outside prying and suppress the heart demons of cultivators within the terrace.
At that moment, the sword runes glowed faintly blue-green, clearly operating at full strength.
At the center of the terrace stood a cold iron Sword-Spine Table roughly thirty zhang long.
Its surface resembled the cross-section of a mountain range cleaved by a gigantic sword, naturally forming layer upon layer of blade-shaped ridges, yet it had been polished as smooth as jade, without the slightest roughness to the touch.
Behind the table stood two chief seats, both cast from sinking-water cold iron. Each chair back was inset with a pigeon-egg-sized Sword Soul Crystal, its circulating, piercingly cold light too harsh to look at directly.
At that moment, the atmosphere on Swordheart Terrace was colder still than the cold iron of the table.
The Condensed Jade Sect's party occupied the foremost seats on the left. Grand Elder Wan Hun sat upright in his chair, with True